Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has announced a pilot program called “Respond to app reviews,” which lets developers respond to reviews of Windows Phone apps directly from the Dev Center.

At the Build 2014 conference, Microsoft said that this program would start in May. The program roll-out will be starting this week with a small pilot group of developers that was selected by Microsoft. Microsoft wants to make sure that the system works as expected and it will be expanded over time. Google launched a similar system for developers in June 2012.

“Some customers may start to hear from developers in the pilot program as early as later this week,” said Microsoft in a blog post.

After a developer creates a response, users will receive the comment through an e-mail from Microsoft. Developers will be able to respond to reviews posted from Windows Phone 8.1 devices in the U.S. Microsoft provided guidelines for use and warned developers that if anyone abuses this service, then they will lose developer access.

“This capability is designed to help you maintain closer contact with users to inform them of new features, bugs you’ve addressed, as well as get feedback and ideas to improve your app. This capability is not to be used for marketing and does not provide you as the developer with the user’s personal information, such as an email address,” added Microsoft.